Some ice cream and cake definitely seemed to do the trick in perking Conquest up. Though still a little tired, he was alert enough to make introductions with the other mares that had arrived. The little fillies were wired after the pillow fight however, laughing and rolling about in play. However, the colt was still weakened and the most he could easily do was laugh at their antics with a lopsided grin upon his face. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo chased each other across the floor in some sort of tag, while Dinky and Sweetie Bell were acting as obstacles to which ever filly was being chased, going so far as to try and hold them down.
Rarity had brought a saddlebag so she could finally take those dresses Derpy kept forgetting to bring over. With a muffled scream and a gag, a hyperventilating seamstress staggered out of the back rooms with a loaded saddlebag. She managed a kind enough smile as she rejoined the group and quickly engaged in a conversation with Pinkie as though to temporary forget some horrifying image.
She also refused to show anypony what laid inside her bags, which smelled strongly of expired mothballs. Derpy gave a shy little shrug, probably a little put out by the state of the contents in the bag.
Twilight wanted to find out more about those paper flyers Conquest made, but controlled her enthusiasm to casually sneaking about the house to search of any others. She was unaware that they were resting beside the colt's bed, slightly squashed by a pillow and a stuffed elephant. She was slowly growing weary of searching whilst trying, badly, to look like she was just examining the décor. Her eye twitched.
Pinkie was amazingly eloquent in speech while stuffing her face with cake and ice cream while at the same time drowning it with punch. She babbled about the cake twins, which then melted into their recent adventure against Starlight Glimmer, then that somehow seamlessly tunred into a discussion about Gummy's favorite color, then another seamless shift into how Equestria was made, then onto how oatmeal was a crazy idea. She laughed aloud before jumping into the group of playing fillies, tickling at them mercilessly.
"Com'on, Conquest, join the fun," she called to the colt with a wave of her hoof while a determined Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were attempting to bring her down. A thought popped into her head as the fillies unsuccessfully tried to overturn the daughter of a rock farmer. "Ooh, can I call you Conner? Con Mane? Coney Isle? Sally? no wait, that's a filly's name. It doesn't even sound like a nickname. What about..."
"Name is Conquest," Conquest told her in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately, he didn't know Pinkie.
"Com'on, everypony loves a nickname," she persisted with a cheerful smile. She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Concrete, because your solid. Contest, because you... no that's silly. Conifer, like a tree. Conrad, because it just sounds silly. Congo, sounds dangerous. You like dangerous, right. Of course you do, stallions...," she paused and looked over at Rainbow Dash and leaned forward to whisper the rest, "...and tomboys love dangerous."
"Hey I don't mind being called a tomboy, you don't have to whisper it," Rainbow Dash said with a roll of her eyes while she hovered over to Pinkie Pie, irritated. "Besides, you don't seem to mind it, Pinkie."
"That's because I'm stark-raving bonkers," Pinkie said with a goodhearted chuckle.
Rainbow Dash turned towards Twilight, who was rummaging noisily through some shelves much to the confusion of Amethyst and Derpy. "Hey, Twilight, can we use that as a confession of insanity?"
"Pinkie Pie isn't insane, Rainbow Dash, stop asking," Twilight said with a huff as she moved on from the bookcase to the kitchen. There immediately followed the sound of crashing pots. "It's not as bad as it sounded."
"Mom, should I be worried," Amethyst said, leaning in close to her mother, who wrapped a protective wing about her barrel.
"I... don't think so," Derpy said in an attempt to reassure her.
Fluttershy sighed from her place over by the table, nibbling a little bit of cake, while gazing about the room. She had greeted Derpy with a smile, just like every time she delivered her mail, and Amethyst and Dinky were a little young to intimidate her. Foals were different from adult ponies, they were curious and often naïve, just like some of her forest friends, and they were rarely mean, often misunderstood, so she was comfortable enough with coming to the party. But, she was more of an observer and small conversationalist, complimenting things here and there while keeping and eye out for trouble. The playing foals didn't bother her, it was usually a sure sign that there was no danger in the area. She briefly considered if she should write a book about her observation in nature.
"Contrived?" Pinkie said, continuing her debate with Conquest.
"Conquest," he replied flatly.
"Controversial?"
"Conquest."
"Convergence?"
"Conquest."
"Constitution?"
"Conquest."
"Conan?"
"...Conquest."
"Consternation?"
"Conquest."
"Chuck?"
"Conquest."
"Pancake?"
"Conquest."
"Conway?"
"Conquest."
The little fillies and Rainbow Dash were giggling at the two, Pinkie's bubbly personality clashing against Conquest's more stoic and deadpanned nature. Pinkie, undeterred in the slightest, listed off dozens of names, while Conquest gave his simple reply. Then Apple Bloom, sitting on Pinkie's back, attempted to come up with some nicknames as well, soon joined by the other fillies and even Rainbow Dash. The onslaught of names beings voiced all at once was beginning to grow a bit much for the colt, and a meltdown might have been in progress if not for the lady of the house cutting in with a board game.
Derpy had seen Rainbow Dash and Pinkie getting carried away with the fillies, and immediately moved in for an intervention, grabbing the first board game that came to hoof. Scrabble. The first round, after a short explanation of the rules, consisted of Dinky, Conquest, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo was the first to come in last, after Sweetie Belle won the first with "cantankerous". Apple Bloom took her spot and actually came in first this time with "malus domestica" (Twilight had to be called in to prove it was real [apple]). Dinky took her loss with dignity and was replaced with Amethyst. Apple Bloom won the next round with "pie" (she landed on a triple-score space). Derpy replaced Sweetie Belle and gave her adopted daughter a hoofbump before the competed. It was a an extremely close game, but Derpy had to concede with Amethyst came up with "parsimony" (though Amethyst suspected her mother was just being charitable). Pinkie Pie took her place and won the next round with "panzershrek" (Twilight was disheveled at being called away from her search again to prove a word existed). Apple Bloom gave a shrug as her sister replaced her and then won with "calisthenics". Pinkie bounced away and was replaced by Rainbow Dash, who lost in a landslide while Amethyst won with "confrontation". Fluttershy replaced the indignant pegasus mare. Amethyst won again with "ginormous", Applejack left with a dignified tip of her hat. Rarity came in next and won with "glamorous", ousting an accepting Fluttershy. A rather disgruntled Twilight was brought in to play and everypony sat and watched as she won two games, getting rid of Amethyst with "irritated", and then Rarity "aggravated". Now it was a final match between pegasus colt and the alicorn mare. no one dared make a noise even though it was about as exciting as watching paint dry.
Twilight came off to a good start with "telegram". Conquest caught some attention with "station". Twilight made "dry" on a triple-score space. Conquest crossed it with "press", giving him a small lead. Twilight took the P and made "paper". Conquest made "flyer".
Tiwlight froze upon suddenly seeing the pattern that Conquest was making. She hadn't watched the other games, save for the occasional time she had to be brought in to verify a word, but it seemed nopony else had seen the pattern. He was completely phrases with the other players' words, probably not even intent on winning. A smile crossed her face as she spelled out "where". She bit her lip as she waited to see if he would answer her question or just finish a phrase.
She nearly whooped when he put down "bed". She then added "room", finishing the last of her pieces. She was certain she would win, when she suddenly felt bad for beating a foal. Maybe she could take back her pieces. It was his party after all. And he hadn't won all night, she knew because they would call out the winner's names loudly at the end of every game. It just didn't seem right. She was brought out of her thoughts when a loud gasp issued out from the audience. She looked down at the board and found that Conquest had used the R in "room" to make "victory".
She look over at Conquest and watched him give a subtle shrug with his stub. He had won with both style and grace, playing everypony along until the end match where he had stolen victory with a few motions of his hoof. Twilight couldn't help but laugh. "Yep. You earned it, buddy. You get bragging rights for beating..."
"Ponyville's biggest egghead," Rainbow Dash interceded with a laugh. "Don't know if I would be too proud of that."
Twilight gave her a glare.
"Twilight, if you wanted to see those paper things so bad, all you had to do was ask," Derpy said with a comical roll of her eyes.
Twilight cringed at the realization that Derpy had caught on to what was going on. She gave a nervous chuckle and sighed. "I... um, uh..."
"I'll get them," Amethyst said as she trotted off with a chuckle of her own.
The fillies whooped and cheered, and started to dance around Conquest in congratulations of his winning, having been told by Derpy not to physically touch him unless he offered first. The grown mares laughed when Conquest, drunk with his flawless victory, threw his foreleg around Sweetie Belle's neck and pulled her into a hug. She struggled to release herself from him, slightly disgusted by stubs and scars. He let her go and let out a great laugh that was disproportionate to his size, making the mares laugh even louder, joined by all the fillies, save Sweetie Belle, who was trying to shake off the feeling of being close to those scars.
"Aah, Sweetie, that was rude," Rarity teased. "Quite a few mares would have loved being embraced by a stallion covered in honorary battle scars."
"He wasn't in a battle," Sweetie Belle protested, much to the delight of her sister.
"Oh, but surviving days in a pile of rocks without food or water, unable to move and no one around to hear you, is most certainly a battle. Of sorts. Hmmm, I wonder how my proposal is going over with the mayor." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, hoping something would be done about that horrible Widow's Walk.
"There a little smashed, but I'm sure they'll be just fine," Amethyst said as she walked back into the room while carrying the paper butterflies in her magic. They were quickly taken Twilight's own and she manically began to look them over, noting differences in design between them and sorting them into groups, almost completely ignoring everything else.
"Oh, sorry, thank you," she said over her shoulder at the maturing filly.
Amethyst shrugged and moved over to watch as Pinkie Pie began to wind film through the projector. The party pony was giggling as she put the film in and flicked on the light so she could determine where to put the screen. It took a brief moment with Amethyst's help and then she called everypony over as she produced buckets of popcorn from hammerspace.
Everypony sat down as the lights went out and the projector began humming ominously. Conquest sat next to Derpy, who cautiously put a wing around him, when he seemed fine with it, she pulled him close, doing the same with Dinky on her other side. She set one popcorn tub on her lap so the two foals and herself could have easy access. The film came to life with a black and white title: "The Night the Bear Ate Goomba". It starred a renowned comedian, Pat McManes, often, if not always, associated with an outdoorsy theme. Sound wasn't developed yet, so caption cards and expressions had to tell the story rather than dialogue.
Then a loud knock came upon the door. There was a groan throughout the collective audience. Pinkie sighed as she turned off the projector and turned on the lights. Derpy ran a hoof through her mane and opened the door to see who it was.
A blue pegasus mare with a no-nonsense glare and black uniform stood their, feathers ruffled after a long, unwanted flight. She cleared her throat and addressed Derpy with snobbish tone.
"Is this the residence of a Mrs. Ditzy Doo?"
"Guilty as charged," Derpy said, eyeing her over suspiciously. What came next made her gasp.
"Then, as secondary lawyer to the Cloudburst family, I bring the warrant and papers necessary to relinquish custody of Heavenly Conquest from you and back into the family bloodline. This is effective immediately, please do not make me get the guards."